


Bake Your Way to My Heart

by bavariansugarcookie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adventures in sourdough, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baking, Bisexual Keith (Voltron), Fluff, Gay Shiro (Voltron), Hijinks & Shenanigans, M/M, Meddling, Meet-Cute, Pansexual Hunk (Voltron), Pining Shiro (Voltron), Wingman Hunk (Voltron), pride t-shirts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27921931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bavariansugarcookie/pseuds/bavariansugarcookie
Summary: On yet another sleepless night, Shiro's scrolling through Instagram and falls down a sourdough-bread-making video rabbit hole. His favorite baker is just so cute, and soon Shiro is inspired to try sourdough baking out for himself. (It has nothing to do with his massive crush, ok??)He's never made bread before, but luckily he has Hunk to help him with his bread-making experiments - and maybe help him with his crush too.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 44
Kudos: 157





	Bake Your Way to My Heart

It all started with a sleepless night - after tossing and turning for an hour, Shiro finally gave up and picked up his phone, scrolling through Instagram. 

He was watching instagram stories, willing himself to get tired enough to fall asleep, when Allura’s latest story flashed across his screen. 

It was a video of someone shaping bread dough - a pair of strong hands gently folding the dough over on itself, pinching the seams, and giving the dough a final pat before whisking it away out of frame. Allura had typed “This is so soothing” at the top of the screen, and she was right - Shiro felt himself sinking deeper into the mattress with each fold.

He clicked through to the poster’s Instagram page - Kogane Bakes - and gasped when he saw the prettiest man he’d ever seen. Dark hair, bright violet eyes, cheekbones for days. He was grinning wide in his profile picture, laughing at the huge Malamute sprawling across his lap. Shiro swallowed, clicking on the first video on the page.

“Hey, it’s Keith, and today I’m going to show you how to incorporate the levain into your dough,” a low, gravelly voice echoed from his phone speakers. Shiro ducked down under the blanket until only his eyes and floof were visible, blushing at his own ridiculousness as he watched the baker - Keith - spread his soggy levain (whatever that was) over the dough, dimpling it in with his fingers.

He felt his eyelids starting to droop as Keith explained the ideal way to completely fold the levain into the dough, and by the time the video ended, he was sound asleep. 

***

Before too long, Shiro had watched all of Keith’s videos, mesmerized by the way he was so confident but so gentle with the dough, and the way he gave each ball of dough a little pat before its next “nap.” 

“Sourdough bread seems scary,” Keith said, “but if you stay calm and take care of your starter you can’t go wrong.”

Shiro hadn’t tried to bake anything since the Cupcake Disaster of 2013, but seeing Keith’s beautiful loaves of bread, all bronzed and golden, made him want to try. 

One day at lunch he asked Hunk, “Hey, you have a sourdough starter, right?”

Hunk eyed him warily, eyebrow raised. “Yeah… why?”

“I was wondering if you could show me how to make one,” Shiro said, and Hunk choked on his water.

“Shiro - I was there for the cupcake fail. And you want to try  _ sourdough _ ?”

Shiro winced. “I’ve been watching videos, and it looked like it was… manageable?” 

Hunk’s eyebrows shot up. “Whose videos have you been watching?”

Shiro pulled up Instagram, swiping down to Keith’s page before passing his phone over to Hunk. A knowing smirk played across Hunk’s lips as he scrolled, and Shiro had to fight the urge to crawl under the table.

Hunk clicked on a video where Keith was seriously explaining that the dough  _ should  _ look like a mini butt to help it rise evenly before he  _ winked  _ and Shiro was ready to leave this mortal plane. “He’s cute,” Hunk murmured, and Shiro buried his face in his hands.

“It’s not like that,” he mumbled.

“Uh huh,” Hunk teased. “His bread looks great, but I don’t think you’re ready for Dwayne.”

Shiro raised an eyebrow and Hunk chuckled. “My starter. Named after Dwayne Johnson.”

Shiro nodded, feeling a bit deflated, but Hunk bumped his shoulder. “Let’s start with instant yeast and go from there, yeah? You’ll be baking with your own starter in no time.” 

“Oh,” Shiro said, smiling sheepishly. “That sounds great!”

***

A week later, Hunk pressed a jar of instant yeast into his hand and walked into the kitchen like it was his own. “So, I’m guessing you don’t have a kitchen scale?”

Shiro shook his head and Hunk nodded, reaching into his bag and pulling out a little black scale with a big red bow around it. “Oh my God, Hunk!” Shiro said as Hunk held the scale out to him. 

“Consider it an early birthday present,” Hunk said, and Shiro swallowed, throwing his arms around Hunk’s shoulders. 

“Thank you for helping me,” he murmured, and Hunk patted his back soothingly.

“Of course buddy,” he said, smiling. “Now, let’s take a crack at some bread!”

***

It turned out that Hunk was right to have Shiro start out with instant yeast - the first batch of dough didn’t rise because the water was a touch too warm, and the yeast died. A week later, he forgot the salt, so he had to start all over again.

“It’s fine!” Hunk said cheerily as he threw the salt-free dough into the trash. “Everybody has bread fails when they start out. And it’s just flour. This is why you have to work your way up to working with Dwayne.” Shiro sighed and Hunk smiled at him. “Trust me, the first time I tried to make sandwich bread the loaf was so flat and dense I couldn’t use it.”

Shiro nodded, rolling up his sleeves and getting ready to dive in again. 

Before he knew it, he was making rye bread, challah, pizza dough, sub rolls, and even croissants (under Hunk’s watchful eye). 

He still watched all of Keith’s new videos, trying to learn all the little tips and tricks he casually mentioned. One day, on his lunch break, he was watching a video of Keith making custard buns when Hunk slid into the seat next to him, just in time to hear Keith say “And we're going to make them look like little bunnies, because my niece is coming over and bunnies are her favorite.”

“Oh man,” Hunk said. “You’ve got it bad, huh?”

“No!” Shiro protested, closing Instagram. Hunk gave him a skeptical look and Shiro blushed. “I like custard buns, ok?”

“Mmmk,” Hunk said, unconvinced. 

Shiro blushed, but Hunk nudged his arm. “Speaking of sourdough, I saw that there’s a pop-up sourdough class this weekend, would you want to go?”

Shiro perked up. “Really? You think I can do it?”

“Sure!” Hunk said. “And they’re even giving us aprons and a starter that you can take home!”

Shiro's eyes narrowed. “You’re just doing this so you won’t have to share Dwayne, aren’t you?”

“No….” Hunk said, and Shiro laughed.

“That sounds great,” Shiro said. “I can’t wait!”

Hunk smiled at him over his drink. “Me either.”

***

On Saturday morning, Shiro was buzzing around his apartment, trying to keep himself busy until he was supposed to meet Hunk. He didn’t think anything of it when Hunk texted him, asking if he would mind wearing his Pride shirt. “I was going to wear my Pansexual Pride shirt,” Hunk said. “And I was hoping we could match.”

“No problem,” Shiro texted back, running back to his room to grab his rainbow Pride shirt he wore to last year’s Pride, just in time for him to make it to class on time.

***

He walked in behind Hunk when he heard a familiar voice. “Hey guys, glad you could make it.”

He stared up at Keith Kogane, standing there in the flesh, and he could feel his ears burning. How was he even prettier in person? “Hunk?”

Hunk breezed past him, holding his hand out. Keith smiled and said, “Oh, hey, Hunk! Nice to meet you officially,” and Shiro felt his heart jump into his throat. 

“You too,” Hunk said. He nodded back at Shiro, “This is my friend Shiro. Shiro, this is Keith.”

Keith turned to Shiro with a smile, hand outstretched. Shiro held his hand out reflexively, reeling from Hunk’s sudden and inevitable betrayal. If he didn’t know better he would’ve thought he was hallucinating Keith’s hand in his, strong and warm. 

“I like your shirt,” Keith murmured, and Shiro glanced down, his brain grinding to a halt when he remembered that he was wearing his Pride shirt. He might as well have walked in with “Hi pretty boy, I’m gay!” across his chest in big, blinking letters. 

“I wanted to match,” Hunk said, coming to Shiro’s rescue. 

Keith smiled. “Too bad I didn’t get the memo,” he said. “I would’ve worn mine.”

“Yours?” Shiro squeaked out, instantly kicking himself for being such a gay disaster. 

Thankfully Keith just smiled wider. “Yeah,” he said, whipping out his phone and scrolling down to a photo of himself with a Bi pride flag splashed across his chest, with glitter on his cheeks. 

“Nice,” Hunk said, holding out his fist for a fist bump. “Bi/ Pan solidarity.”

“Hell yeah,” Keith said, returning the fist bump with a grin. Just then a group of ladies walked in behind them, and Keith waved. “Hey ladies! I’ll be with you in a second.” He put a hand on Shiro’s elbow. “Hey guys, if you can head over, we’ll be ready to go in just a second.”

Shiro nodded, following Hunk to the table, standing behind their name cards. “You did this on purpose,” he whispered, and Hunk gave him a smug smile.

“You can thank me later,” he whispered back, but before Shiro could respond Keith walked over with the other classmates. Shiro put on the apron laying across the table, praying to the baking gods that he wouldn’t totally embarrass himself in front of Keith.

***

The class went by in a blur. Shiro was so focused on following Keith’s directions and mimicking his confidence with the dough, that he could hardly believe it when his loaf came out of the oven, looking beautiful and golden brown. 

At the end of the class, Keith handed out little jars of starter. “The directions for feeding your starters are in the email packet I sent with your receipt for the class. So you should have everything you need to make your own sourdough at home, but if you ever have any questions you can always shoot me a DM on my Instagram page.” 

Everyone started slowly packing up their things, and to Shiro’s horror, Hunk walked over to chat with Keith. He dropped his apron on the counter and ran after him, terrified to find out what would come out of Hunk’s mouth next.

“Thanks for everything,” Hunk said. “I really liked your tip about sealing the bottom seam, I’ve never gotten them so neat before.”

Keith smiled. “Thanks, man. I had a feeling you’ve made a couple sourdough loaves before.”

Hunk shrugged. “I’ve made a few.” He looked over his shoulder at Shiro. “My buddy really likes your videos, so I figured it would be better for him to learn from the expert.”

Shiro blushed a bright, boiling red, but Keith’s face lit up. “Really? That really means a lot, I was worried that no one would sign up for the class.”

Shiro’s eyebrows shot up. “No way, your videos are great!” He glanced over at Hunk. "I’m usually a disaster when it comes to baking, so they’ve really helped me a lot.”

Keith smiled softly, and it took all of Shiro’s willpower not to melt into a puddle over his dimples. “He’s not kidding,” Hunk said, breaking the spell. “When he first asked me to teach him I was terrified to let him bake with Dwayne.”

Keith laughed. “Oh yeah, I get that, I’m very protective of Fran.”

Shiro tilted his head. “Fran?”

“Oh,” Keith said, blushing. “My dad worked nights, so during the summer I would fall asleep to reruns of the Nanny, and Fran was always my favorite. So I named my starter Fran Fine.”

Shiro grinned. “That’s adorable.” Hunk sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What?” Shiro protested.

“Just thinking how I'm going to be subjected to even more gay puns every day for the rest of my life because that's the gayest thing I've ever heard.”

Shiro spluttered, but Keith just laughed, scratching the back of his neck. “This is why I need my bi pride flag shirt. To let people know what they’re getting into.”

Shiro chuckled. “Yeah, no way anyone’s getting the wrong idea with this,” he said, waving his metal hand at the massive rainbow across his chest.

Keith smirked. “I mean,  _ I  _ appreciate it.”

Shiro was sure he was dreaming, and was about to wake up to his alarm any second. It barely registered when Hunk patted his arm and said, ‘Well, I’ll leave you two to it,” scooped up his things, and left.

Keith gave Shiro a small smile, soft and private, and he swallowed. 

"Sorry in advance for all the 911 DMs you're gonna get when I inevitably have a bread crisis," Shiro said, and Keith laughed. 

"No problem, that's why I'm here." He raised an eyebrow. "What if I give you my number so you can text me your questions?"

"Y-yeah. That'd be great!" Shiro said, trying to keep his voice at a pitch audible to the human ear. 

Keith grinned and grabbed an abandoned name card. He scribbled his number on it and pressed it into Shiro's palm.

Shiro held it carefully, as if it was made of glass. "Thanks," he whispered. 

"No problem," Keith said with a wink, and fuck it, life was too short.

Suri took a deep breath and said, "There's a coffee shop down the block that's really good, if you'd want to grab some."

Keith's smile turned sly, and he practically purred as he swayed into Shiro's space. "Coffee sounds great."

Shiro grinned from ear to ear. "Great! Let me just…" He tucked the name card with Keith's number carefully into his pocket, then fumbled to scoop up the new apron and tote bag and all the other complimentary merch. 

Keith chuckled fondly, holding out the cloth bag with Shiro's hard-earned loaf inside. "Can't forget this."

"Oh, thanks," Shiro said, certain that his blush was going to stain his cheeks pink permanently. 

Keith tucked the bread into Shiro's tote bag and looped it over his shoulder. "Let's get you some coffee."

Shiro nodded. "That'd be great."

***

A few months later, Keith posted a new video to his Instagram page - with a different hand model. 

"Babe, hold it up higher!" he said, and Shiro laughed, trying out a classic Vanna White maneuver to show off his loaf of bread.

"When I first met Shiro, he'd never made a loaf of sourdough before, and look at him now! I promise, it just takes a little practice and then you'll be making all your friends jealous."

Shiro smirked at the camera. "What Keith's too nice to say is that if I can make it, anyone can. Literally anyone."

The video shook slightly as Keith laughed. "It's just cause you had such a great teacher, right?" 

"The very best," Shiro said smiling softly and Keith cleared his throat.

"Ok guys, that's all I've got today, I need to go kiss my boyfriend now." The video shut down, and the Instagram story upload wheel spun, but Keith had already dropped his phone, throwing his arms around Shiro's neck and pulling him down for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! <3 This fic was inspired by a sourdough video rabbit hole I fell into. I actually tried to make a sourdough starter in January and it was a HUGE disaster, so for now I've been using instant yeast and living vicariously through Shiro's baking shenanigans. XD
> 
> You can find me over on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/bavariancookie) if you want to talk about Sheith!


End file.
